


i’m in summer, in letters, in love

by JamlessGenius



Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld Is A Cinnamon Roll, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Fluff, Letters, Librarian Ahn Jaewon | Wyld, M/M, Road Trips, They’re American, They’re gay your honor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26190403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamlessGenius/pseuds/JamlessGenius
Summary: Dear Jaewon,Do you remember the day we met? When I stumbled in to your library, hoping to find a book and peace? And I found you?Me too.
Relationships: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld/Kim Daehyun
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	i’m in summer, in letters, in love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FlooRose12371](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlooRose12371/gifts).



It’s the summer before college.

Some kids would get a summer job. Some kids would go on a vacation to a faraway beach or mountain. Some kids would throw and go to parties.

Daehyun was going on a cross country car trip. He had an old blue car that was from the sixties that he got for cheap and had fixed up with a newer engine.

The carshop people had said it was blasphemy and his mom said she didn’t want the car failing him in the middle of a highway. So he listened to his mom and told them they could have the engine for free.

And that was how he ended up on the road, his guitar, a credit card, a few suitcases, and a polaroid camera.

He’d gone to some cities. Gone to some beaches.

Everything had been familiar yet new in the face of how he was alone and independent on a trip in the country.

But that was how he ended up in this town in the middle of the drive back east. 

He pulled into a town that was practically out of a novel. The kind of town where everyone knows everyone and still manages to be impossible to find on a map. 

There was a diner (a real-deal type, checkered floors and rounded edges and neon lights and Daehyun was obsessed) and a school and a library.

The diner had three employees. A shy but friendly guy named Taehyuk who stared at people’s hands, a tattooed guy with an ever present-scowl named Jun, and the manager named Nari with dyed-blonde hair and cheered a lot and got into three arguments with Jun as he met them.

He even met the teacher named Rose with bright pink hair and an unamused attitude towards people not being themselves. He loved her hair. He loved the color in this place. Everything in this small town was so vibrant but still faded into summer light.

Daehyun might just be in love with this small town.

And then he met Jaewon, the librarian.

Soft sweater even in the summer and glasses and hidden thermos of coffee covered in stickers and a smile.

A single conversation and Daehyun was enamored.

Yeah. He’s totally in love with this small town.

** Dear Jaewon, **

** Do you remember the day we met? When I stumbled in to your library, hoping to find a book and peace? And I found you? **

** Me too. **

** I’m really grateful that you were my friend, Jaewon. Can we still be friends despite the distance? **

**\- Daehyun**

** It’s nice to hear from you, Dae.  **

** Snail mail? I love that for you. **

** How’d college and the world and all the known? **

** It sounds beautiful. In a feral and tamed sort of way. **

** Is it like that? Can you walk in cities and college towns and experience life in only the way a bustling hub of people from everywhere and nowhere is? **

** I’m ever so curious. **

** \-  Jaewon **

** (p.s. that means I’m expecting a lot of letters in the future) **

Daehyun settled into his summer.

His mornings were all the same now, waking at the motel and eating at the diner. Often Nari had to break up an argument between Jun and Taehyuk and got fed up and started yelling at Jun.

But they’re good people, and Daehyun spent time with Jaewon, who was as much an enigma as he was an open book.

Every question he answered. But he was so confusing and intoxicating.

Jaewon spent almost all his days at the town’s library, and Daehyun explored the forests around, swimming in the probably way-too-dirty lake and climbing trees and playing his guitar for the birds that didn’t care which humans intruded upon the land that was very much theirs. 

Sometimes he ran into campers and hikers and spent time with them. He always did prefer beaches to mountains, but there was a sort of serene peace in this small town by forests and mountains. 

Jaewon was shy, but it didn’t last long in the face of Daehyun’s desire to get to know him.

“I’ll bet this vacation is going at a weird pace,” Jaewon laughed, taking a sip from his ever-full thermos of coffee. 

“It’s... a break from everything I’m used to. All the people I know and the hanging out in giant groups and the shopping and the bustle. It’s quiet. But if you live in quiet, what do you do for a vacation?” Daehyun looked at Jaewon.

“I like museums when I go on vacations,” Jaewon smiled. Daehyun looked at him, confused.

“It’s not like they’re hard to find,” he told Jaewon. “If I took you from my parents’ place to my busking spots, we’d pass a ton of museums.”

“City-boy,” Jaewon laughed, airy and light. 

“You sound like you’re from the countryside.” Daehyun threw an arm around his shoulder. Jaewon startled, and then smiled at him.

“Nope. Just the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s beautiful, in only the way nowhere is.”

“That’s because it’s different,” Jaewon laughed. “Wanna see my different?”

“Yeah,” Daehyun breathed. “Yeah, I do.”

Jaewon tugged him far past a backyard and into a forest. Like the surrounding forest that made this town so beautifully no-name.

They reached a clearing in that forest. Jaewon pointed to the sky.

It was littered with stars.

“When you escape the confines of the tightly packed you’ve only ever known, life is so beautiful, isn’t it?”

“You say that like phones don’t exist,” he teased. Jaewon blushed, looking startled and a little concerned, but he regained his bravado.

“Seeing pictures and hearing sounds isn’t the same as feeling, Daehyun Kim.” he insisted. “Can you smell and hear and see and feel with your and body and soul with a phone?”

“No,” Daehyun admitted. “I guess you don’t realize it ‘till you’re there.”

“Yeah,” Jaewon said. 

But he was looking right at him.

** Jaewon, **

** Summer is drawing to its close for real this time. The year is starting again, isn’t it? **

** There’s no stars in the city either, but a lot of bright lights hanging on buildings. Like the diner in the night. **

** It’s a lot bigger, though I’ll bet you’ve seen pictures. My mom saw me sending letters with so little words and I laughed. **

** But I guess we don’t need to say much to feel heard when I’m talking (writing?) to you.  **

** Take care,  **

** Dae  **

** Daehyun, **

** I’m shy, so it’s not like I write too much if I don’t say too much.But don’t be worried about our letters being short. We can just send a lot! **

**School is starting soon for you, right? There’s so many sales to take advantage of, that it’s even made its way over here and none of us are headed to college this year. I still got a new laptop out of it! Taehyuk was playing a game and he crashed my old one. Jun made fun of him for that. Nari says to tell you to find her a city boy with a giant paycheck. Rose dyed her hair blue before the school year. A mom complained about the professionalism of a teacher with pink hair.**

** Taehyuk is dying his hair in solidarity. I think I’m gonna go red! Jun already said it doesn’t suit me, but Nari says it’ll look good! **

** I’ll send pictures if I dye it.  **

** Good luck! **

** -Jaewon **

Daehyun was enamored, entranced, bewitched. In only the way a person could be a town in the middle of the summer and with a person who walked with an air of someone too pure and good for this world. In only the way a person could when they’re eighteen and in the summer. 

Jaewon laughed in the firelight and he played his guitar to claps and cheers.

“I feel so special, a free show just for me,” Jaewon laughed into his sweater paws, cheeks pink. How was he still wearing sweaters in the summer? 

Was he so hot that seasons just didn’t matter? Like, once you reached a certain level of attractive, the temperature of the room didn’t touch you?

“Just for you,” Daehyun said in a sing-song with a strum of his guitar. Jaewon leaned back and laughed, eyes curling cutely.

“I like music, it’s emotion in sound,” he said, content. Jaewon looked over at him, eyes curious, lips lightly parted.

“Do you like poetry based in emotion?”

“Words are the salt and the bandage,” Daehyun mused. “I think that human hearts will stay wild no matter how cautious their eyes grow. It’s art in feeling.”

“Someone once told me that poetry is everything lost in translation and languages are their own musics,” Jaewon drew his knees to his chest, eyes on the campfire Daehyun definitely didn’t spend all day practicing making so he could impress him. 

That was poetry in itself. 

“Whoa, were they an artist?”

“My senior year English teacher,” Jaewon laughed sheepishly. “But he was the reason I wanted to work in a library if I couldn’t go to college. He retired last year, I was one of his last students.”

“You graduated last year, then? What did you want to study?”

“Yeah, and I’ve always wanted to be a marine biologist. It’s just... not in the cards right now.” Jaewon shrugged. “No big deal.”

“One day, you’re gonna run an aquarium and I’m gonna visit you on your breaks and take you to every single museum I can find,” Daehyun grinned at him. Jaewon raised an eyebrow, looking amused.

“How are you so sure?”

“You work in a library! There’s no way you’re not smart!”

Jaewon laughed so hard he snorted, and Daehyun beamed.

These moments were ephemeral, pressed like flowers within the polaroids steadily growing a pile in Daehyun’s suitcase.

His suitcase, because this was a summer of ephemeral and bewitching moments, not forever.

** Hey, Jaewon? **

** Sorry if this gets to you a little late. School’s just started and... well. **

** The world’s kinda scary, isn’t it? I mean, it’s kinda settling in that I’m taking these “next steps” into the world, but I feel like I’m still just a kid. **

** Isn’t it weird? How after so few years of getting to know ourselves and learning the skills we will and won’t need to survive in the world, we’re left to our own devices? I’m lucky that my parents are going to support me, but the world feels a little too big right now. **

**I hope you don’t kind me sending this. It’s kinda just... I’m sitting here with a coffee at two am and working on homework I don’t** **even want to do and I’m thinking about you on the other side of the country.**

** When I was with you, you just breathed the air of someone who knew what they were doing. **

** Any advice for a lost soul? **

** From, **

** Dae **

** Daehyun, **

**I don’t know what I’m doing. The world is big and cold. But even when the world is cold, I try to find the heart not to be. I’m scared all the time, I’m a little awkward. In school, I always thought I was ostracized. I’ve come to realize that I secluded myself.**

** I guess what I’m saying is this: **

** You’re a kind soul, Daehyun, and I like that about you. Don’t lose yourself in the tide of the world and let them change you. **

** Sincerely, **

** Jaewon **

** (p.s. get some sleep!) **

“Where are the matches?” He asked Taehyuk, who gave a little forced laugh.

“Don’t be silly, we don’t need it!” 

“You totally lost them, didn’t you,” Jun glared at Taehyuk, who laughed, a little less forced but no less awkwardly. 

Daehyun looked at the unconcerned Jaewon.

“Should we be worried?”

“Jun carries a lighter around, so-“ Jaewon shrugged- “I’m not?”

They were hiking into the surrounding forest to get matches while Nari sat primly on a camping chair and bickered with Jun.

“We’ll get wood,” Daehyun called back. Taehyuk shot him an almost-desperate look.

“Wai-“ Taehyuk froze mid-sentence, staring between him and Jaewon. (Particularly, their very-much-unlinked hands? What was up with that?)

A brilliant smile cracked across his face.

“Just you two, okay? Jun needs to stay with me!”

He had planned on that? Was adding Jun necessary? 

“Just day you like him and go,” he shot back with zero malice. Taehyuk did take on a funny shade of pink. 

“Wha-! You-! Ugh! I’m trying to help you!”

He looked at Jaewon, confused. Jaewon shrugged. 

“How long have you been friends with these guys?” Daehyun didn’t want to be rude, but he was curious. 

Jaewon responded but shrugging.

“A while, I guess.”

A while? Not forever? It looked like they’d known each other for a while, though. He had to ask. 

“Did you grow up in this town?”

“I didn’t. Neither did Jun,” Jaewon laughed. It was a cute sound. 

“Nari? Taehyuk? Rose?”

“Nari and Rose did. And Rose is Taehyuk’s cousin. He’s staying with her to help her take care of her mom.” Jaewon helpfully slotted more puzzle pieces of their dynamic in for Daehyun. In this little isolated piece of country, he’d forgotten what an interconnected world they lived in. He blinked.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Jaewon shrugged. 

They gathered sticks in comfortable almost-silence. Until he broke it. 

“I kinda thought you grew up here, to be honest. Jun too.”

Jaewon looked relived to have something to respond to. Good to know he wasn’t the only one feeling awkward.

“‘Cause it’s a small town?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. Jaewon blinked at him. 

“I moved here because I wanted to... get away? I guess? And I could more feasibly survive with a job I’m honestly probably not actually qualified for like this in a small town.”

“Hah, and you said you weren’t smart,” Daehyun teased. Jaewon pinked.

“I- I mean-“

Daehyun giggled.

And if he wrapped an arm around Jaewon while they made s’mores and drank beers that they definitely weren’t supposed to consume, that didn’t bother anybody.

** Hey Jaewon, **

** Thanks for your support. It’s a lot easier knowing there’s someone super far away that cares about me. And before you ask, I’m not forgetting my grandparents in that statement. **

**I’m working on my classes and everything’s going well! How are you?**

**Your friend,**

**Dae**

**Daehyun,**

**Have I just been upgraded to grandparent status? I’m only a year older! Ouch.**

**Kidding!**

**Anyway, I told Nari and she laughed. So... yay? Life here is same old, same old. I had to stop a teenager from defacing a memoir with a hate symbol, but these past few days** **haven’t been out of the ordinary. Nari and I think Jun and Taehyuk might be secretly dating. Well, secrets either don’t last long or last forever in a town like this!**

**It’s dawning on me how I’m writing like I talk, but my monologues are like... four-ish sentences? Maybe that’s why we’re writing so little per letter!**

** Best wishes, **

** Jaewon **

Daehyun ran his fingers through Jaewon’s black hair. The aforementioned librarian was taking a nap during one of his breaks on Daehyun’s shoulder. He smelled like coffee and books and reminded him of afternoons stealing away to libraries to read novels instead of facing the world, back when he was young and shy. 

Jaewon was cute. Really cute. 

Daehyun could practically hear his mother screeching to respect him for being an elder, but Daehyun wanted to baby the guy. 

Call him cute nicknames and boop his nose and hold his hand and take him to every damn museum in New York.

And it was complicated. Because Jaewon was something like sunshine. But not the strong sunshine that can take everything. He was like the little rays of light through windowpanes. Adorable and bright, but soft. 

Jaewon was not an image of visceral power, but he certainly held some kind of power over Daehyun.

Though he wasn’t really the worst person he could hand off the reigns to, all things considered.

**Jaewon,**

**We’re writing little, but exchanging so many letters that I think my roommate is convinced that you are, in fact, a grandparent. But I guess when you have enough to fill a drawer, that’s fair.**

**Minyoung got a fake nail in her drink today and screamed so loud when she saw it! I felt so bad. Also, I went busking today for the first time in a while!**

**When I see you again, I’m totally just playing for you, though. How are you doing, back in town?**

**A big hug,**

**Dae**

**Daehyun,**

**Have you been saving our letters? I thought that was just my habit... but yes, I’m counting out the letters and I’m proud to say that we’re in the thirties now.**

**Yay for us!**

**Jun and Taehyuk are in fact dating now, and Nari owes Rose dinner. I didn’t know you could bet meals, but I’m scared to try. Nobody can defeat Rose in a bet. Also! She’s gone back to pink! She looks happy with her color. I might just dye my hair red after all (I say, as I deliberate for another month and a half and decide against it) but who knows?**

** Regards, **

** Jaewon **

Daehyun returning to the city wasn’t a big affair. But his inglorious return was punctuated with memories of the people he’s met along the way.

He saw fun loving and wild Nari in the tourists, excited to see the big apple. He’d found them slightly bothersome before, but now he might just understand them a little better.

He saw the unshakable Rose in the people, practiced in the life of a city-dweller. 

He saw the tough and world-weary Jun in the city itself, strong and standing after all its been through. He never learned what Jun had suffered, but he could make enough of a guess. 

He saw the playful and kind Taehyuk in the art projects. Before they’d been a tourist attraction, but now they were a little piece of impossible expression in the strong-but-controlled energy of the city. 

And everything else seemed to evoke a memory of Jaewon. The buskers reminded him of their discussions of poetry and music and expression. The coffeeshops he started noticing reminding him of the thermos with little shark and kitten stickers always filled with coffee. The museums he’d only started to realize dotted the streets. 

When had he even started drinking so much coffee? When college officially started?

Minyoung even noticed, swirling her straw in her boba.

“You’re already settling into the college student aesthetic!” She beamed and he felt so fond of his old friend. 

“If you say so,” he allowed. She leaned over, nails clicking against the tabletop. 

“So? I haven’t been able to meet you since everything picked back up. How was your summer?”

“I got an old car and drove across the country,” he began. She paused, looking him up and down.

“Your tone says that something happened,” she prodded. He shrugged.

“Well... um... there was this town?”

“Were you hurt?!” Her grip around her drink made the plastic crackle.

“What?! No!”

Please don’t grip too hard, Minyoung, or it will crack! 

As if hearing his thoughts, she loosened her grip on her drink. Her anger was replaced with a mischievous grin.

“Oh, so you have a crush on someone in a far off town?”

“Wha-!” How did she know?!

“Oh please, Dae. How many years have I known you?”

“Valid,” he groaned. She beamed.

“So? Tell me about him?”

“Um he’s a librarian, a year older-“

“College?” She cut him off.

“Not an option,” he admitted.

“I see, continue,” her eyes were narrow. Like she was screening Jaewon. Which was funny because if he ever met him, she’d probably want to wrap him in blankets. 

“Really cute, kitty eyes-“

“Asian-American?” Minyoung cut in. He was so used to that, and it was a little piece of home to hear it again.

“Yeah.” 

“Huh. He’s probably just as much a fluff ball as you are,” her smirk grew. 

“I guess. It’s not like we’re dating, he lives too far away.”

Was he telling her that or reminding himself?

“I guess we have to go back to the real world now, all work and all that,” she said with a little, slightly sad, laugh. 

“I guess,” Daehyun echoed.

He didn’t stop seeing little reminders of Jaewon everywhere.

He didn’t hate that either.

**Hi Jaewon,**

**Good for them! Tell them I’m cheering them on! My blood may be half-caffeine right now, but I’m very proud!!! Also, if you want to go red, go for it. You’ll look good.**

**All the best,**

** Dae **

** (P.S.: Don’t take a bet that you think you’re not gonna win. Ever.) **

**Dae,**

**Thanks for the advice. Maybe you should get some rest? I hear college is a lot of work, and you write these letters all the time. Please don’t feel obligated on my behalf to write so often if it makes you tired!**

**Take care,**

**Jaewon**

** (p.s. Rose got sick of my dancing around the subject so anyway! I’m dyeing my hair red in a few weeks!!) **

So Daehyun wrote a letter to him, instead of texting. They never exchanged numbers but he had his address.

He had been anxious about it. It was a little bit of weird thing to do. And what if his letter was too short?

It gnawed on his mind. Minyoung had no such qualms about making fun of him. 

Until Jaewon wrote back.

His letter was barely more than a note, his handwriting much neater and on pretty stationary with sakura blossoms along the edges. But it was a response. 

So he replied, and received another one on the pretty pink paper. Some of the notes smelled like coffee, and he almost winced at the question of just how much coffee he’d drank for his notes to smell like it. But that was just Jaewon, caffeine addict he was.

And it went on like that for weeks, a building pattern. His roommate, Jay, had been so confused about this little detail of Daehyun’s life.

“Letters?” Jay had asked. “In the twenty-first century?”

But...yeah, he was anticipating letters every day, setting aside money for stamps. He found himself carrying around his Polaroid camera and taking pictures of everything that reminded him of Jaewon. 

He eventually had to downsize it to everything that reminded him of Jaewon, because the stack of Polaroids was too thick to fit in his envelopes. 

But it became their thing. Sending short notes across the country, because their conversations weren’t always long, but the feeling was still there, in Jaewon’s script and his print, in his loose-leaf papers and Jaewon’s pretty stationary. In their letters and stilted conversation, he felt a little more like he was sitting side by side with him. 

And it’s after a hard test where Jaewon’s letter on the wall is his only source of strength and picturing his smile and their conversations and their silent and vocal camaraderie and it’s then that he realized that he might just be a little bit in love. 

** Jaewon, **

** Would it bother you if I asked if you’d want to come to the city? I see so many things that I know make you happy. No pressure!!! Just curious. **

** Not gonna lie, my friends at college are all super confused about me writing letters so diligently. But I think this is better. What about you? **

**I found a new coffee shop that’s a hole in the wall kinda place. I figured you might like to know it’s called Find A Way Cafe! I took a picture of the storefront. See all the Polaroids I took for you?**

** Well, I can’t take pictures inside those museums... but if you want, I can put my arm around your shoulder and be your guide in the city. **

** Yours, **

** Dae **

** (p.s. did you actually drop that kind of bomb in a postscript?!) **

** Daehyun, **

**I‘m saving up my money so I can go to college. I want to study in a city, and maybe I can meet you then. I’ve been saving for a little while, but I don’t know if I’m brave enough to apply for the program I want, and the colleges with the program aren’t very close to you. I think we’re going to have to stick to letters for a while.**

**Also, yeah. It is a little strange for us to** **communicate through letters. But I have exactly thirty four letters in a box that’s telling me it’s not a bad thing.**

** Sincerely, **

** Jaewon  **

** (p.s. hehe, yup!) **

** Hey, Jaewon,  **

**If you have the dream, don’t let me hold you back. Letters have gotten us this far, no? I think it’s kinda cool that have so many.**

**You wanted to go into marine biology, right? The world is your oyster! (Get it?) I know you’re really smart, and I think you could do it. A lot of schools have scholarships programs, maybe there’s one for you. I think they’re dumb if they don’t think to offer you at least acceptance!**

** Cheering you on, **

** Dae **

** (p.s. I will be expecting that picture!!) **

Jaewon stopped writing. 

Which, um, sucked. Because he was still waiting on a picture of him with red hair and all that. But life kinda sucked without the steady promise of an incoming letter or having one to finish back at his dorm.

And life suddenly swept him off his feet. He was working so hard and he didn’t realize before how much of an impact Jaewon’s letters had.

Daehyun missed Jaewon.

It wasn’t just a long distance thing. It was that he missed hearing from him, picturing the expressions that crossed his too-easy-to-read face while he wrote.

But time’s march was inevitable and suddenly he’d been going without Jaewon’s support.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder, but when a letter finally appeared for him, he may have burst into tears.

He really, really liked Jaewon, huh?

** Hello, **

** Sorry I haven’t been able to write in... wow. It’s been three months. It’s because I’ve taken your advice. I’ve taken the tests, sent in the essays and my high school report card. And that leads me to this: **

** I have the most exciting news! **

** I’ve accepted into a marine biology program on a scholarship!  **

** There’s a school that’s a few hours from you and they’re giving me a huge one.  **

**They replied really quickly, and I’m moving there a week before next semester. So... I think I can come down to the city too.**

**Is your offer to be a tour guide still valid?**

**\- Jaewon**

**Jaewon!**

**Congratulations! I’m so excited for you!**

**You’re gonna have to tell me all about the animals in every puddle and pond we find now! Every. Little. Body. Of. Water. (Just kidding! I know you specialize in the ocean!)**

**Do you think your roommate would be annoyed if I buried your bed in marine animal plushies? I wanna give you a shark and a penguin and then a seahorse so they can all be friends. I think they’re very solitary with their own kind, so someone different would be nice! And I totally just looked that up, just saying.**

**I’m happy for you, and proud. And a million of other things. I’m also really excited to see you again. Isn’t it weird how you can know someone for such a short time and suddenly you can’t picture a future without them in it?**

**Even if it meant I’d be old and grey and writing letters to your town.**

**Looking forward to seeing you,**

**Dae**

Sure enough, he was meeting up with Jaewon again. He had moved in, sent a letter from his new address, too. Daehyunwas only able to gasp at the sight of him, at first.

“Oh my gosh! Your hair!”

Sure enough, Jaewon had brilliant red hair. It was more of a confident color than he expected. But Daehyun did not appreciate the way his mouth went dry at the sight.

“You like it?”

“Red?” Daehyun was really in word-vomit mode today.

“I felt like it was a fun and confident color so... red!”

“You look amazing,” he gushed. Jaewon smiled shyly, reaching up to cover his red cheeks. 

“Thanks, college life seems to be treating you well, too,” Jaewon replied.

“That’s just ‘cause I dressed up,” Daehyun giggled. It was true, he had busted out the nice jeans and one of his best casual plaid shirts that Minyoung had bought him when she said he needed better date clothes. And that was not a train of though he intended to pursue. Jaewon smiled at him anyway.

“Well, you look good!”

“So do you!”

“I, um... didn’t expect you to dress up so... hoodie-“ Jaewon weakly gestured to his body that was, in fact, clad in a white hoodie. 

“You look fine! How was the trip?”

“It was so much fun! I haven’t been on a train before, but it’s so cool!”

Whoa, really? He blinked at Jaewon.

“You traveled by train?”

“Yeah! I had to stop twice before I got to Boston, but I’m here now!” His cheer was contagious and Daehyun found a giant smile across his face. 

“Wah! Your school is so much closer now!”

“Yeah, it’s still a ways away, but we can still meet up,” Jaewon agreed. Daehyun winked.

“Good, because I plan on it,” he said.

“You have plans?” Jaewon looked at him, kittenish eyes wide, pretty plush lips parted slightly in disbelief. Seriously, Daehyun wanted to kiss that face after not seeing it for too long. And that meant that he and his stupid teenager heart needed to have  _words_ . 

“Since I got back,” Daehyun admitted, feeling a blush creep across his neck. “I have so many places to show you!”

And Daehyun took him on a trip to an art museum.

And a science one.

Jaewon seemed to drink in everything around him with fascinated fervor. He ignored all of his surroundings to read the placards or interact with the exhibits. It was so gosh darn cute! Could someone give Daehyun a scientific explanation of what gives him the  right -

Okay, he had to cool down. Even if they were almost holding hands, and he had wanted to kiss Jaewon’s pretty face since he’d stepped off the bus.

And in the end, by a playground filled with giggling children on vaguely shaped sculptures, he kissed Jaewon on the cheek. It was such a stupid, impulsive action. But he was right there, and Daehyun had no better explaination.

Jaewon blinked at him, surprised, and blushed pink, hiding his face in the sweater paws his hoodie had no reason to give him!

That aside, Daehyun was having a miniature internal panic attack. Did he just screw up? Did Jaewon think he was weird for doing this in their limited time together?

But Jaewon just smiled at him and linked their pinkies.

“Our hands fit well.”

And then they kept walking.

** Daehyun, **

** It looks like I’m still writing letters even though we text almost every day. It’s just our thing now, isn’t it? **

** I promise you’re on my mind, I’m just so bad at texting first so I always hope you will. **

**So school is starting up and... wow. This is such an exciting thing to be doing! It’s a little exhausting but I’m running on optimism my dormmate says won’t last to exams. His name is Marshall! He keeps me up with video games sometimes, but he’s nice!**

** Campus is so beautiful and I want you to know that you’re the inspiration behind me going and trying for this. Thank you, Daehyun.  **

** Yours, **

** Jaewon **

**Jaewon hyung (I told my mom about you and she yelled at me for not calling an older Korean male hyung so... :p),**

** That was all you. I mean it. This was your achievement and even if I have no right to be, I am insanely proud of you!  **

** Campus life sounds fun. Marshall is cool! Make sure to make a lot of friends but tell them that Daehyun Kim is the highest priority or they can come out here and meet me in the pit :/ Anchovy nickname be damned I will fight. **

** Hugs! **

** Dae **

“Sharks!” Jaewon gasped excitedly at the creatures.

“Aren’t you scared of sharks?”

“They’re my favorite animals!”

They were in an aquarium, and Jaewon’s eyes were bright like a kid’s. 

“These fish are pretty!” He pointed to one with what looked like a trailing mustache. Jaewon beamed.

“That’s a catfish! See the whiskers!”

“You like cats?” He asked. Jaewon nodded.

“Yup!”

“I like dogs,” Daehyun said seriously. “But honestly, cat people are a mix of cats and dogs, and just cats.”

“I like both,” Jaewon giggled. “But it’s true!”

“Ooh! A touch tank!” Daehyun led him. Jaewon’s brilliant smile grew even brighter.

“Look! They even have signs and people to make sure the animals are safe!”

“Responsibility for their charges,” Daehyun nodded. He mimed marking something off on a clipboard. “Good, good.”

Jaewon threw an arm around his shoulder and guided him to the tanks. 

“I was always scared of doing one of these as a kid,” he confessed to Jaewon. 

“Me too,” Jaewon laughed. “I didn’t want to hurt the animals because nobody was there to tell me how to handle them.”

“Yes! This is literally the best thing for me!” Daehyun agreed, throwing his hands in the air with glee. A watching staff member hid a giggle, but Daehyun caught it. 

She proceeded to introduce herself as Koko and take them through the tanks with surprising patience for two young adults at a typically-for-children attraction. Which was dumb. Petting zoos never lost their appeal.

They stayed at the aquarium for a lot longer than even the museums. Daehyun pretended to be far more interested because Jaewon was spouting a bunch of facts and comments about the animals and the plants and he looked way too cute to interrupt. When he got that kind of innocent-excited, it was as fragile as a soap bubble and just as pretty.

Eventually they did leave, and found their way to a cafe. It was cool one, with cool lightbulbs and nice wood floors.

They sat in the coffeeshop, Daehyun with a hot tea and Jaewon with a black coffee. He’d insisted on paying but Jaewon had snuck under his nose and paid for both drinks and looked at him with such a cute mischief in his eyes that Daehyun let it slide. And they chatted about classes when he just paused to appreciate the pale lights against Jaewon’s porcelain skin. 

He didn’t realize he’d blurted the words until they came out.

“I may or may not have a giant crush on you?”

Jaewon’s eyes widened, and he looked so caught off guard.

“Uh... okay?”

Was this heartbreak? Daehyun craved death. That was humiliating and he wanted to jump in the Hudson- 

But Jaewon had this soft sort of smile and laced their hands across the table.

What?

Jaewon leaned across the table. And he planted a super shy, blink and miss it, kiss to Daehyun’s cheek. His lips were soft and smelled a little like strawberry chapstick.

A laugh caught their attention. There was couple in the corner, a man with dyed silver hair sitting in the lap of a physically imposing man. The taller man smiled softly at the tiny guy in his lap.

“Remember when I was like that?”

“Yeah, but you’re cute so I let it slide,” the silver haired guy teased.

Jaewon flushed the color of his hair, opting to hide his face in his hoodie. Daehyun laughed at the absurdity of the situation. 

And they walked to the buses so Jaewon could get back to campus. He smiled shyly, Jaewon returning it. Jaewon looked at him as the bus opened its doors.

“Talk to you soon?”

“Well, you have my number now,” he laughed. Jaewon reached out and gave his hand a squeeze before he turned and stepped onto the bus.

He headed back to campus when he realized there was a bright blue post-it on the end of his sleeve.

** Dae, **

** I’m kind of awkward when I talk out loud, but yeah... **

** I totally have a giant crush on you too:) **

** -Jaewon **

And if he cheered right in the city street, that was his business.


End file.
